Dr. Istvan Rajcan is a Professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Canada. He received his B.Sc. in agriculture degree from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia and his Ph.D. in canola breeding and genetics from the University of Guelph, Canada. He has been leading a soybean breeding and genetics program at the University of Guelph since 1998, where he focuses on seed compositional traits (e.g., fatty acids, isoflavones, etc.) for food, nutreaceutical/functional food and industrial uses as well as genomics and phenomics research. In addition, his research involves exploration of genetic variation for yield and disease resistance traits using exotic germplasm, especially from China as centre of origin for soybean to study genetic basis of adaptation to mega-environments using classical and genomic tools. Dr. Rajcan has completed 46 graduate students at the M.Sc. or Ph.D. level who work in industry, government and universities and currently advises five students. He is the recipient of several awards including the 2025 National Association for Plant Breeding (NAPB) Public Breeding Impact Award, 2022 Canadian Plant Breeding and Genetics award 2022 Canadian Seed Growers Association (CSGA) Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2008 “Seed of the Year” Award Winner for the soybean cultivar “OAC Kent”, the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) Alumni Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Guelph, for his various contributions to plant breeding and genetics. Si